4 ms·
It has all to do with choice of words, but of a son. He never told nurse that she can't breathe. She told here "she's having difficulty breathing" and then "No,
by al_chemist 7y ago
It has all to do with choice of words, but of a son. He never told nurse that she can't breathe. She told here "she's having difficulty breathing" and then "No, you can't (talk with her). She seems like she's incoherent."
incoherent - (of spoken or written language) expressed in an incomprehensible or confusing way; unclear.
Only person here that is incoherent is son. "having difficulty breathing" means breathing but with difficulties. "incoherent" means talking but words does not make sense.
- JshWright 7y agoSomeone in that moment of panic is not carefully choosing the words they're using and considering their dictionary meaning. I'm a paramedic, not a calltaker, but if someone is described as "having difficulty breathing" and "incoherent", that warrants an EMS response. Start the rig and ask any other questions you have after that.
- al_chemist 7y agoI'm not pedantic about word use, but if somebody uses random words they can't expect other person to understand. When nurse asks what is the problem and they respond "i don't know, how the hell should i know?!" Should nurse know? How? What about panic attack? It can be described as shortness of breath (difficulty breathing) and sense of terror, impending death, loss of control (being incoherent). It's not life-threatening and does not warrant EMS response.